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Brad Paisley:
Brad Paisley is country music's reigning lyricist, guitarist, and vocalist. With hits like "Ticks", "Alcohol", and "Online", Paisley has proven time over time that he knows how to write a catchy song with an amusing hook. Brad Paisley tour dates are currently scheduled nationally with the country crooner as the headlining act on the "H20 Tour 2011".

Paisley hails from West Virginia, he taught himself to play the guitar at eight, and by 12 years-old, he had already written and performed his first single on the radio. Unlike other country stars, Paisley's talents were uncovered at a relatively early age and he perfected his songwriting craft through the paid support of ASCAP. He moved to Nashville and attended Belmont University on a fully-funded ASCAP scholarship and he interned with Atlantic Records. Paisley graduated from Belmont with a degree in Music Business and he immediately signed a songwriting contract with EMI Music Publishing. He immediately had a hit on his hands when he penned David Kersh's single "Another You", in 1996 when the single reached the top five of the country singles charts.

After early success with his songwriting career, Paisley was signed to Arista Nashville for a recording contract and he debuted his first single "Who Needs Pictures", and album of the same name in 1999. The album featured the #1 country single "He Didn't Have to Be", and it was eventually certified platinum by the RIAA, not bad for a debut album. Paisley also made his premiere at the Grand Ole Opry in 1999, and at the age of 28 he was the youngest member ever to join Country Music's biggest stage.

In 2000, he was named the Best New Male Vocalist by the Academy of Country Music and was nominated for Best New Artist at the Grammy Awards. He released his follow-up in 2001 and won a CMA award for Music Video of the Year for the single "I'm Gonna Miss Her (The Fishin' Song)". The video featured a cameo from his future wife, Kimberly Williams, who would go on to be the inspiration for several of his other hits including "Then". In support of the album, Brad Paisley tour dates were scheduled across the country and he served as the opening act for Lonestar.

Paisley had his biggest commercial success with the album, "Mud on the Tires", which featured the platinum duet with Alison Krauss, "Whiskey Lullaby"; The song was also named Song of the Year by the Country Music Association. The album went on to be certified double platinum and remains Paisley's biggest selling album. He released his fifth album, "5th Gear", in 2007. Ever since 2007, Paisley has been awarded the Male Vocalist of the Year title at the Academy of Country Music, and was again crowned in 2011.

Paisley went on to release several more albums and headline more tours in the latter part of the 2000s. He won his first Grammy award in 2008 for "Best Country Instrumental" for the single "Throttleneck". Brad Paisley tour dates were announced on a national headlining tour entitled "The Paisley Party". For 2011, Paisley has a new album "This is Country Music" set for release in May, 2011.

All in all, Paisley has charted 25 singles on the Billboard country charts, 16 of them have hit #1 and he holds the record for the most consecutive #1 singles with ten #1s in a row. He has headlined several tours and is gearing up for his latest national tour, "H20 II: Wetter and Wilder World Tour". This 2011, the Brad Paisley concert schedule includes stops at the America's largest venues and will be supported by country stars: Darius Rucker, Blake Shelton, Jerrod Niemann, and Sunny Sweeney. Don't miss out on the ACM's Top Male Vocalist four years running when he comes into town. Use Eventful as your source for Brad Paisley concert dates and venue information.

Chase Bryant:
Music defines Chase Bryant. At every level and in often unexpected ways, his truths are expressed in melody, lyrics, hooks and sounds … but his reality goes even deeper than that. Bryant’s heritage is defined by music. His upbringing, his craft, his inspiration and his obsessions are all centered in the same – which is good – because there’s no other way to explain how a 22-year-old Texan could already be a top-flight guitar player, head-turning songwriter, RED BOW recording artist and co-producer of his debut album.

Bryant focuses his muse on the commonalities people share. “We all have a destination,” he says. “We all have dreams we want to follow. I’m no different than anybody else, I just sing about it. It’s my job to put the party on and give people a good reason to have fun.” And that he does, whether it’s in the soaring groove of “Summertime Saturday High,” the sparkling “Fire,” unabashed romanticism of “Change Your Name” or the vocally-charged, guitar-shredding debut single “Take It On Back.”

Raised in Orange Grove, TX (pop. 1,200), Bryant’s grandfather played piano in Roy Orbison’s first two bands and, later, for Waylon Jennings. His uncles co-founded the group Ricochet, which had several hits in the ’90s. “From the time I was a kid, the only thing I wanted to do was play music,” he says.

“I was two or three years old and heard Jerry Lee Lewis’ ‘Lewis Boogie’ come on my grandfather’s record player. I remember hearing him say, ‘My name is Jerry Lee Lewis and I’m from Louisiana’ … and I had an identity crisis! I thought I was Jerry Lee and would walk around saying that. In school, I was the odd kid. There were 20 guitars in town and I owned all of them.”

Conway Twitty, Merle Haggard, Tom Petty, Vince Gill, Bob Wills, Steve Wariner, Bryan Adams and more were early influences, but a confluence of releases brought him to a turning point. “Keith Urban’s Love, Pain & The Whole Crazy Thing and records by Sarah Buxton and Jedd Hughes did it,” he says. “I knew I wanted to play mainstream country – I always knew. But those records told me that I could be that and still write guitar riffs that would stick in somebody’s head.”

“I never wanted to be anybody else,” he says. “My grandfather always told me ‘you can’t be good at being anybody else. You can only be good at being yourself.’ ”

Songwriting was an integral part of his development. “It goes back, of course, to getting my heart broken in school,” he says. “Some girl broke up with me – I may have been 11 or 12, and I just wrote it down. I was never great at reading, but I liked words, phrases and sentences. The only way I knew to let people know me is through writing. I’d just look at my life, grab some paper and put it down.

“The other thing I’d do is have melodies playing in my head. Something would pop up and I’d just go, ‘There it is.’ ” Encouraged by his parents, particularly his school-teacher mother, he graduated early and moved west. “All I wanted to do was play music and Los Angeles was my first attempt,” Bryant says. “Somebody asked me to go out there and write for this little company and I took the first flight. The dream was that simple, but you can’t stop before the miracle happens. You have to keep going. And I feel like it was a miracle just making it out of Orange Grove. I loved L.A., but Nashville is where I wanted to come. I probably wrote 400 lousy songs before I wrote my first good one. But one good one was enough to get Nashville managers, pluggers and publishers on board.”

Because of his Roy Orbison connection, someone suggested a meeting with Roy’s widow, the late Barbara Orbison, a prominent Nashville publisher, who signed Bryant on the spot, making him her final signing before she passed.

That road led Bryant to BBR Music Group imprint Red Bow Records, to which he signed in August 2013. During one early meeting, Founder Benny Brown, notoriously picky about working with producers, surprised Bryant. “He’d listen to my demos and say, ‘Where did you cut that?’ or ‘Who produced that?’ And I’d always say, ‘In my closet. Cut it myself. Played it myself.’ Benny trusted me enough to co-produce with Derek George (Randy Houser, Joe Nichols). He gave me the reins, which was something I always wanted.”

Brown’s confidence was noteworthy if for no other reason than the fact that Bryant is completely self-taught as a producer. “There were no studios in Orange Grove,” Bryant explains. “My parents took me to a Guitar Center and let me get what I needed. From there, I started building little tracks that I would listen to in the car and compare with what I heard on the radio. I taught myself how to make stuff sound bigger and better.”

Despite being on the cusp of exceptional achievement for someone so young (having recently been named one of “The Best Things We Saw at CMA Music Fest 2014” by Rolling Stone) Bryant sees little difference between himself and the audience. “We’re all fans,” he says. “We’re all friends. And the music is our connection. To me, it’s a lifelong relationship and we’ll all get where we’re going together. That’s the beauty of music. This is the first chapter of my book, and I think people will find it defines where they’re at just as much as it defines where I’m at — because we’re the same – I’m just the guy with the guitar. If I wasn’t, I’d be the guy on the front row with his arm around his girl raising a glass to the guy onstage. No question. It’s just who I am. Music is everything.”

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Lindsay Ell:
"My dad will tell you that when I was little, the car radio had to be on the country station," Lindsay Ell explains. "If my older brother touched the dial, I would beg him to turn it back. It got to the point that if they were listening to something else, all I had to do was get in the car and they'd automatically flip over to country."

Coming from a family with deep musical roots, the Stoney Creek Records’ artist started playing piano and guitar at a very early age. "I learned how to play guitar traveling to country-bluegrass camps with my dad, and knew right from the beginning of my strong passion for country music."

The 25-year-old Calgary native was discovered at 13 by BTO and The Guess Who's Randy Bachman ("American Woman," "Takin' Care Of Business"). "Randy learned guitar from master jazz guitarist Lenny Breau, so I dove head-first into this world of blues, jazz and rock guitar – learning all these different solos, switching radio stations and trying to get an idea of where all those techniques come from. I was listening to Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Clapton, Derek Trucks and all those incredible guitar players.”

Lindsay’s passion and study has served her well, leading to several unique opportunities, including an opening slot with blues icon Buddy Guy; however, her first songwriting trip to Nashville was the catalyst that brought her early affinity for country full-circle. "When I got here, it was like I was home," she says. "I didn't need to put on a facade of who I was or wasn't. And I finally fell back into my roots. Coming to Nashville brought me to who I am and who I'm meant to be."

In October 2013, Lindsay embarked upon one of her most exciting opportunities to-date: an opening slot on The Band Perry’s We Are Pioneers World Tour encompassing 50 dates throughout Europe and North America which ran through March 2014.

Because it is rare, she knows her six-string prowess is not the only focal point, but an accent to her vision as an artist. "There aren't a lot of girls who play electric lead guitar, and it can be a defining thing," she says. First and foremost, I want people to hear me and understand my voice as a country music recording artist. When they come see me, I'd love it if they were impressed at my guitar and piano playing. But by that point, hopefully they understand the artist behind it all has a lot of different sides to her music."

To get to that point, she knows radio will be key – and she can't wait. “Going out on a radio tour and having the chance to share my music and show people how ready I am continues to be one of the most exciting steps I've made yet."

Having spent a decade learning about the music industry from the front of a stage, Lindsay Ell is more than ready for that step – however big or small. "Playing live, honing my craft and developing as performer before taking my first serious try at being a recording artist and getting radio airplay gives me a foundation a lot of artists just don't get. I've had the cords fail, the monitors shut down and mics die. I've seen all kinds of crowds ... and no crowd at all. I feel ready as a singer and a musician. I have confidence as a performer. I've been writing for years and, since moving to Nashville, have found how best to communicate who I am. I'm comfortable in a conference room with six people or onstage opening for Keith Urban in front of thousands. It's really not that different. Both are exciting and a little humbling. Either way, I'm ready to go."

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Dustin Lynch:
“Shhh!” The note on the Bluebird Café’s Facebook page says it all: customers who visit the Nashville songwriters club – instrumental in the development of Garth Brooks, Faith Hill and Kathy Mattea – are expected to keep quiet and listen to the words from some of Music City’s most influential composers.

Listening has an added benefit – it gives the listener a chance to learn.

That’s how singer-songwriter Dustin Lynch used the Bluebird. And he used it intensely. He rented an apartment behind the venue’s back parking lot and literally walked to the Bluebird several times a week to listen and learn about the mysterious art of creating songs from some of Nashville’s most important writers. Don Schlitz (“The Gambler”), Tony Arata (“The Dance”), Paul Overstreet (“Forever And Ever, Amen”) – all are mainstays of the Bluebird legend, and it was at their proverbial feet that he picked up key insights about the writing process.

“I was soaking it in, trying to be a sponge,” Lynch says. “I was mainly trying to hear the story behind the song, how it came about, what it’s really about. There’s something about understanding the songwriter’s realm. You get a little more grip on the way it was written and why it was written and how they got to the finished product.”

That education paid off in a big way for Lynch. He signed with Broken Bow Records – the home of Jason Aldean and sister label to Stoney Creek Records (home to Thompson Square) – and is working with producer Brett Beavers (known for his work with Dierks Bentley) and engineer Luke Wooten (Brad Paisley, Sunny Sweeney) on his debut album with a backlog of his own songs. He’s written that material with a bundle of Music City’s top writers – Dallas Davidson (“Just A Kiss”), Tim Nichols (“Live Like You Were Dying”), Casey Beathard (“Don’t Blink”), Phil O’Donnell (“Back When I Knew It All”) and Steve Bogard (“Prayin’ For Daylight”), to name a few.

But it all goes back to the Bluebird for Lynch, a native of Tullahoma, Tennessee. Influenced in his youth by such stalwart country singers as Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks and Clint Black, Lynch knew the importance of the Bluebird, and he chose his college – David Lipscomb University – in part because it was less than two miles from the club, which proved immensely important in his development.

Lynch auditioned on a Saturday morning for a chance to play its open-mic night the following day. He passed the audition and impressed host Barbara Cloyd so much that she chased him into the parking lot and offered to help him get some footing in the community.

As he began to establish himself at the Bluebird, Lynch got a call from Pete Hartung – manager for singer-songwriter Justin Moore – who had found Dustin’s MySpace page and wanted to get involved. Within weeks, Lynch had a publishing deal, and he made the most of it, writing a staggering 200+ songs in less than two years.

“I’m a workaholic,” he says. “I was getting paid to write songs, so that’s what I did. That’s just the guy I am, if I’m not doing something I get bored, so I was trying to write the best record possible and decided to just get after it as hard as I can.”

Even as a Bluebird visitor, Lynch had made an impression. After he signed his publishing deal, one of the company’s executives persuaded Phil O’Donnell and Casey Beathard to book a co-writing session with the new writer, even though they’d never even heard his name. As soon as he walked through the door, they exploded: “Holy crap, Dustin! We know you!”

But it’s not just physical recognition that Lynch has achieved with his studious approach to songwriting. He combined his fascination with words and melodies with concert skills he developed in high-school bands and playing the southeastern club circuit. That combination has made him one of country’s artists to watch, a performer who’s written his own mix of party songs and ballads with a unique perspective. It’s his own viewpoint, honed from watching the world, and watching the experts.